Verizon gets your consent by not getting your consent.

Verizon’s definition of “getting your consent” is not getting your consent and unless you un-give them the original assumption of consent, you have, in their eyes, given your full consent.

It’s garbage day and that means that I can go through the mailbox and have the garbage cans right there to throw away all the crap mail. As I was disposing of the chaff, I saw an envelope from Verizon that stank of sales offers. The only thing that kept if from the trash was the black lettering on the outside that mentioned “changes to your account.”

Inside the envelope was a brochure with the first section titled, “You privacy is important to us.” (See scan below. Click to enlarge.) In the brochure, it clearly states that, “The Federal Communications Commission requires that (Verizon) obtains your consent to (share Customer Proprietary Network Information.)" The Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) is information “such as, quality, technical configuration, type, destination, location, and amount of the use of the telecommunications services you purchase.” It also says that CPNI isn’t my name, address to telephone number, but I don’t give a shit…

I’m pissed that their definition of “giving consent” is doing nothing. To not give consent, I have to call a number and “opt out” of my consent that I never gave. One of my favorite sayings is, "Silence means consent," but this seems out of line. The FCC requires they get my consent and damnit they should have to get it from me.

I just called and the automated system was painless to un-consent.

Maybe I have not been reading my Customer Agreements and perhaps this is commonplace, but it just stinks. If you are a Verizon customer and want to “opt out” of your assumption of consent, do so at 800-333-9956.

If any of you know why this is something I should be un-opting out of, please help me by explaining why.